EHR a Money-Loser for Most Physicians

Federal meaningful use incentives alone are not adequate to ensure that the vast majority of medical practices don't lose money on electronic health record systems, suggests the author of a study on the cost impact of EHR.

The basic benefit from EHR is health, welfare and safety of patients we love together with improved quality, reduction of redundancy and cost . This thought certainly is well known but in order to achieve there are many factors apart from EHR cost Participation of patients , infrastructure IT management and willingness of empowered people to listen from actual practitioners and keep the necessary element in meaningful use and not force folks such as-specialist to spend time in core and menu items [INVALID] may create error or omissions The thought that senior doctors can not type as good as young ones and that is an obstacle is myth. Who says they have to type They h ave to enter data EHR is wonderful tool and that will be quite a joy when you give visit summary report to patient end of visit and go over No better doctor patient relationships Do it as it s not EHR but it is the environment of providing art of healing to hurt from regulations ,consumers and politicians mistrust and compensation below the par looking at the life and death decisions health care providers make for the good of children's disabled elderly women and uninsured Sequestrations has been going on in health care and will continue so fight the challenge as health of the nation will improve by providing good care Best Debate and make impact Dinesh

civisisus (3/5/2013 at 11:14 AM)

substitute "office lighting", or "carpeting" or even "suture" or "tongue depressor" for "EHR", and the story reads the same. Grow some brain cells; In capable hands, EHR is a tool. In fact, unlike those other, humbler tools, EHR has the potential to be a more useful tool, the more that other physicians capably use it as well. That most physicians or physician groups do not yet have capable hands does not change that fact.

Tyco Brahe (3/5/2013 at 10:20 AM)

The US is very early in EHR adoption. It's premature to consider the steep learning curve as part of the reason EHR may make physicians lose money at first. Later, EHRs will allow physicians to code better and to help with malpractice claims. Overall, the entire health system will benefit because EHRs improve care coordination and prevent duplication. Certainly, however, physicians may lose money because they won't order tests and scans that another doctor ordered before them[INVALID]but you can't blame EHR for that. American healthcare has to move forward and not remain in the paper chart dark ages.

Eric Curry (3/5/2013 at 10:10 AM)

We have been using EHR for almost 9 years now. The article is correct in saying that its difficult to switch over, but there are EHR systems out there that are quality and low cost. We use Amazing Charts which was written by a physician and its very user friendly and inexpensive compared to what others are charging. The other issue most physicians are reticent about is the fact that they don't have an IT guy on staff. I do the IT here and if there is an issue I can usually correct it within a matter of minutes. I also do server and database management so our practice does have quite an advantage over most. The cloud is the next answer to small practices, but that can be daunting and expensive. Another issue is most older physicians can't type! What the younger generation takes for granted and can do in their sleep, older generations never learned to do! They were trained to hire secretaries and transcriptionists, so of course any EMR is going to slow them down and cost them money! There are speech recognition technologies out there but again, if you have an older physician who is technologically challenged, then any new tech is going to be intimidating and chances are they won't use it! The answer is to create a hybrid that will allow older, more experienced physicians to adopt new tech that will not hinder their style of practice, is inexpensive, and user friendly. THe other thing is office managers and doctors need to know a snake oil salesman when they hit the door! Most of the EMR's out there are 5 or 6 figures, confusing and are a complete waste of time. If the person trying to sell you an EMR "flew in" to see you, chances are whatever he or she is selling is way way way overpriced! This applies to hospital EMR's too!

J. Kuriyan (3/5/2013 at 9:26 AM)

What we need for an efficient healthcare system is NOT an EHR. We need data (medical and lab) in an electronic format. Unfortunately the Federal government does not recognize this distinction. Just as doctors were able to get E&M and other reports in an electronic format without investing in a computerized system - they used a service to transacribe their dictation - we could accomplish data conversion without an EHR, especially in the case of a small practice.